This past weekend LAUSD had their Round 1 meet, which saw Granada Hills win at around 33k. Grant was 2nd at 30k, followed by Palisades Charter at 27k. Seems like it will be a pretty hard set of tests which is exciting. No news on ECR however. Scores can be found here

I wouldn't be surprised to see Medium be slightly more difficult but not a huge jump. Maybe different tests are harder. Some of the tests were weird in that they really focused on just one aspect of a resource, which really hurt us in some subjects.

So Dulles competed this weekend. This was by far the hardest set of Easy tests I've ever seen. We had accidentally taken the Easy Math a month earlier as a diagnostic, which I didn't realize was the Easy test until about two weeks before the meet. Because of that, our math score didn't count for the meet, which put us at 5th at the meet with 28,340. Add in the math from a month ago, and we would have won with a 33,911. The math test was incredibly easy- there were probably a hundred people who placed top 5 not including our students. The rankings down below would be there place at the meet if we would have added our math score in.

I'm mostly happy with our performance. My biggest problem is that we were inconsistent in the stuff we have already done (music, econ, sosci, art). Considering how much we had worked on music and econ in particular it was a bit disappointing how inconsistent we were in those subjects. We will have completed everything by the time the next meet occurs, so we will get a better picture of our team then.

Hey everyone, so we have our first set of meets in places like Texas and Cali. Most of the schools are using USAD Easy, but I do know some meets are using Xathlon as well. The Houston-area one at Morton Ranch is this week, Rockwall is next weekend, and then the Marshall Fall Classic in L.A. is using Xathlon next week, and Lubbock will be using it next week. Time to finally see what the field looks like!

All I can speak about is Dulles, and I think we will be okay. Lots of depth at every category, so hopefully we can see some success at these meets.

Hey everyone, Xathlon is back with the second week of videos about preparing for the school year, this time talking about a rarely used item- the scorebook! Check it out here, or find it in the podcast feed. Sorry for the delay, we had some technical difficulties pop up this week, and due to this delay the article will also be delayed until tomorrow. Cheers!

Hey everyone, I wanted to officially announce here that I am working with Xathlon to start producing academic decathlon content on a consistent basis. Starting today, we will be having a consistent schedule of videos, podcasts, and blogs for everyone to watch and engage with for free. We would love to receive feedback, or ideas, or questions from the community. Our hope with this is to create a place for the academic decathlon community to start coming together and collaborating, discussing ideas, and becoming more unified!

We will be uploading our first video today, and the podcast tomorrow will be an audio version of that video. Starting next week we will be having a different podcast where we see the return of Xathlon Talk. Thursday will be a blog post about looking back at 2018 in Texas.

To end this year and then show the ranking changes, here is the very long lost of all teams to have state that we have recorded (2002 being the exception- and if anyone has the medium and small reports for that available please let me know!)

To close this out finally, I just wanted to add that this was a lot of fun to get together, and while it took a long time I hope y'all enjoyed it. The neatest part about decathlon in Texas is the amount of schools that have had sustained success- whether that means winning championships or placing in the top 10 or making it to state consistently. There has been tons of teams to see success- 16 teams have won state in Texas, compared to 11 in California (who started six years before Texas). It makes each new year incredibly exciting- of the last few years, only 2017 felt decided very early, and there was still a massive battle for large school state. Any given year, there seems to be 10 schools that could compete for a championship. Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll be doing some stuff like this pretty soon.

James E. Taylor was once the "evil" empire of Texas Academic Decathlon, winning state five years in a row and six in seven in the 90s/early 2000s. Under coaches Shellum and Swetnam, Taylor would also win two national titles and come within 21 points in 2001. Coach Jackie Scott would then take over and be very successful with Taylor, but would not be able to replicate the previous successes (although no one has). After Ms. Scott's retirement, the Brunsell family has taken over and created an incredibly successful program that seems destined to return Taylor to nationals for the first time since 2001.

Taylor doesn't show up on the 1980s rankings due to only have five at a maximum on there, but they start in 90 with a 10th place finish despite having the most medals at the event. '91 would see Taylor's worst finish ever in 25th, with a 17th in '92. '93 seems to have seen Taylor hit its stride, going 10th and then 4th in '94. '95 begins the domination of Taylor- 1st by 1,500 in '95, 2nd in '96, 1st in '97 by 1,800, 1st in '98 by 180, 1st in '99 by 1,800, 1st in '00 by 600, and 1st in '01 by 2,800. This is by far the most dominant era by any team in Texas Decathlon, with Rockwall's '11-'14 a strong second.

2002 may have seen either a retirement or merely a down year, as they dropped to 5th and out of serious state contention. '03 and '04 saw them go 8th and 11th, followed by a jump up to 5th in '05 and a drastic drop to 18th in '06. Taylor seemed to find their footing at this point, going 3rd and 6th in '07 and '08 (a tough year), followed by back to back 2nd place finishes in '09 and '10 to Pearland and crosstown rival Seven Lakes. A 3rd place in '11 and another 2nd place in '12 represented a return to power for Taylor, but struggling in a world where many of their main competitors were not around when they first won state titles- Pearland, Rockwall, Seven Lakes. '13 saw a drop down to 9th, and '14 saw a drop to 12th. At this point is when the Brunsells take over, and would see immediate results going 7th and 8th in '15 and '16 before taking a close 2nd in large school in'17 and 5th in '18 at an absolutely barbaric large school meet.

Taylor has gone through three major generations of coaches, and each time has seen varying degrees of success. They are one of the most prestigious school in Texas decathlon history, and have shown us the full potential a strong decathlon program can have.

Dobie is one of three Texas schools to have won multiple national titles, and has risen from a two year hiatus in the mid 2000s to return to prominence, although not quite the height it once was. With the departure of Coach Higgonbotham, it will be interesting to see if they can keep it up, but if this past year is any indication they are more than up for the challenge.

Dobie started the 90s in a solid 6th place and climbed from there to 2nd in '91 behind a historic team, Pearce. '92 saw them claim their first title over Pearce by 900 points, as well as their first national championshp under historic coach Richard Golenko. '93 saw the hangover happen as they went 9th and straight up did not make state in '94; I do not know why they didn't qualify, but Pasadena also did not qualify so it may have been an issue with funding for the district. It must have been something odd, because in '95 they jumped back in all the way to 2nd behind Taylor. '96 would see them win their second state and national title, running away with the title by 2,600 points and narrowly eeking out a victory over El Camino Real.

'97 saw them in 3rd and '98 they were 5th in a tight race. '99 saw them in a dominant position, beating out the competition by 1,500 points...except for Taylor who beat them by almost 2,000. '00 was a repeat as they lost to Taylor while also having an excellent year. 2001 saw the same thing happen, a great team beat down by a historic Taylor team, very similar to Pearland and Rockwall some 15 years later.

'02 saw Dobie finally have a chance to win again with Taylor being down in 5th, but they would lost in the most controversial year ever in Texas decathlon, losing to Lubbock because one of their varsities put their scantron in their test book and therefore was not scored until after the meet. It went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, but eventually favored Lubbock. In '03 Dobie left no doubt as they won over Keller by 1,500 points for their third state title but did not win nationals, coming third behind Moorpark and Waukesha West (boy what a time capsule those two names are). '04 saw Dobie drop to its lowest spot since they didn't qualify in '94, dropping all the way to 8th in large school. It was at this time Golenko retired, and with no one willing to replace him, the Dobie decathlon team simply ceased to exist for two years.

It was at this point Coach Higgonbotham, a former Dobie decathlete, came to save the program. In 2007 he fielded a whole new team and got them into 9th at large school state immediately, setting up for a very quick return to prominence. Winning state again, however, would take a little bit longer, as they would go 4th in large in '08 and '09, then 3rd in '10. in 2011, Dobie would field one of its greatest teams ever and narrowly get a victory over Rockwall, before falling at nationals despite being within grasp of Granada Hills and Texas' first national title in 11 years. This would be the height of this second wave for Dobie, as they would drop to 10th in '12, 8th in '13, 8th in '14, 6th in '15, and 12th in '16. Higgonbotham and co. made a run for a large school title in '17 but with some subjective hiccups ended 4th behind Dulles, Taylor, and Friendswood. In '18 they went 6th in a packed year, but without Higgonbotham at the helm.

Dobie is situated in Pasadena, a suburb of Houston that has a working-class background with lots of oil and gas nearby. It has been consumed by urban sprawl as well, making it more similar to Nimitz than its other counterparts in this area of the rankings. This makes it an incredible achievement what coaches Golenko and Higgonbotham have been able to do, and that Dobie seems destined to continue. They are an incredible school, and decathlon is the perfect embodiment of their school's passion and intelligence.

Friendswood won the Medium state championship 15 straight years from its creation in 1993 until they were dethroned in 2008 by Seven Lakes. Before the creation of Medium school, they had qualified for state twice but in the mid-30s they were nowhere near what they would become. '93 would be their first year to really step up, placing 12th overall and winning the Medium title over Highland Park. They would jump into the to 10 in '94 at 9th, and then pushed forward into 6th in '95 and then into 2nd in '96 behind Dobie. They would drop to 9th in '97 (seemed an inflated year for large), then back up to 3rd in '98 when they were about 600 points away from taking it all. Another drop in '99 outside the top 10 and a 10th in 2000 (another super inflated large meet) was followed by a shot back up to 3rd in the brutal '01 year. Following this would be the best stretch in Friendswood history- from '02 until '07 they would win a state championship and then place second every other year during that span. A truly remarkable run that was unfortunate for them to not have won more, especially '06 and '07 where they were within a few hundred points objectively. '08 would see the end of an era as Friendswood was hit pretty hard in its own region with Pearland, Dobie, and Seven Lakes rising to prominence (or returning in Dobie's case) and dethroning Friendswood as one of the best programs in the area and even in the Houston area. '09 and '10 would also be rough as they dropped to 9th and 11th (wow, so rough), before a jump back into prominence in '11 and '12 with two 5th places but losing to Rockwall for the Medium title. When Rockwall moved up to large, Friendswood won back to back medium titles in '13 and '14 placing 3rd both years behind dominant Rockwall and Pearland teams. 2015 saw them in large school for the first time ever and thriving, but finishing 3rd in a tight 3 way race along with Pearland and Highland Park. 2016 saw them drop to 9th in a competitive year, before jumping up to 4th in '17.

Needless to say, Friendswood's dominance of medium school and their continued success post dominance is impressive. Coach Simons has been there for most of their great run, and you can tell when she wasn't there. She has helped create an amazing program that is consistently a challenger for a state title. I think Friendswood's success without a lack of titles really highlights the issue with large and medium having different meets. Not in terms of saying they were unlucky, which they may have been, but in saying "what if the other meet had slightly better subs?" They were within the range on objectives to challenge for a title with subjectives, but due to the two different locations their is very little to compare between them and the large teams that won in subjectives. It just makes thing a lot tougher to sparse out, and when you have two teams incredibly close in objectives then any variance in subjective judging is inherently unfair ('04, '06, '07, '09, '11, '12, '18).

At either rate, Friendswood was the best team in the state in the post-Taylor and Dobie fallout, but didn't capitalize on that success as much as they could have. Still, 20 years of success is incredibly impressive, and puts them into the stratosphere as one of the greatest teams in Texas and U.S. decathlon history.

Nimitz is the highest school to not win a state title by far. Consistently one of the best programs in Texas, they have been so incredibly close so many times. Similar to Plano Senior, Nimitz made its first jump into the top 10 in '91, coming in 5th after being 20th in '90 and staying in the top 10 for '92 and '93. The mid 90s were a bit of a struggle as they bumped in and out of the top 10. However in '97 they made it into the top 10 and would make the jump into truly challenging for a title for the first time in '98 with a defeat to Taylor by less than 200 points. '99 would see them fall back in the top 10, and then '00 would see them jump into 4th in one of the highest scoring years ever. '01 would see them go 3rd, a great team but far behind the final team in the Taylor dynasty.

After the demise of the Taylor dynasty, Nimitz seemed to have been set up well for that big breakthrough. In '02, they were fourth in a four way battle at the top that would see Lubbock beat Nimitz by 518 points. '03 would see them in 5th, but '04 was finally their year! They won their first large school state championship over Plano Senior, Garland, and Lubbock who were all within 500 points. However, in what seems a controversial situation, Friendswood beat them by 1,000 points from Medium due to the double whammy of tough subs at Large (Nimitz highest with 14.9k) and easy subs at Medium (New Caney highest with 16.5). On tests alone it was incredibly close, but the subs issue gave Nimitz no chance, creating the first controversy of the split meets deciding a champion. They would drop to 6th and 4th in '05 and '06, before making another run in '07, falling short of Plano by 600 points (and Friendswood). '08 would also see them second in large behind Pearland and behind the medium champion Seven Lakes. The next few years would go 5th, 4th, and 8th before a 3rd in large in 2012, 4th in '13, 5th in '14, and 5th in '15. '16 would see them squeak into 10th and another 6th place in '17 happened before their streak of top 10s was broken in '18 in an unbelievably packed competition.

For those of you not keeping track at home, that is 17 top five placements in the large school state competition for Nimitz. That is a lot. I think that may be the most ever, although I'm not sure. That is something truly incredibly and puts Coach Jackson and Nimitz up there as an all-time team. They were in the top 10 EVERY YEAR between 1997 and 2017. That's insane. What's even crazier is that they are the underdog every single year. Irving is a lower socioeconomic center of Dallas, and do not have the student body any of the teams we have been talking about have. Most of the schools that excel at decathlon are suburban middle-class teams, so for Nimitz to do what they have been doing was incredible.

The future of Nimitz seems unsure with the growing depth of Texas Academic Decathlon. So many schools have picked up and started to do great things in decathlon, making Nimitz's task of staying in the top 10 even more of a struggle. I wonder if Nimitz being so low this year is more a reflection of the growing strength of Texas, rather than just a down year. At either rate, what Nimitz does going forward will be incredibly interesting to see, and I will always be rooting for them to get 2nd place

Plano Senior has been one of the most consistent programs in Texas history, placing the top 25 EVERY YEAR from 1990 until 2014. Plano bursted onto the scenes as a serious contender in '91, jumping from 15th to 3rd and about 1500 off of first place Pearce. This jump may have shown they would break through for a title, but they would go 4th in '92, 3rd in '93, 3rd in '94 (only 800 from Holmes), and 3rd in '95. An amazing run, and probably the best team in these five years to not win the title, including losing to crosstown rivals Plano East. They would dip to the bottom of the top 10 and out from 1996 until 2003. They were still good during this era, just not as the level they had previously been, which may have been for the best since that was the era of Taylor domination. In 2004, they returned to the top, narrowly losing to Nimitz for large school (who would lose to Friendswood overall). 2005 would see them place second at large yet again, this time to Keller (and Friendswood who beat them narrowly).

The 2006 team will go down in history as one of the best teams in Texas history. Only three other teams were within 3,000 points of them, and their scholastics took 1,2,3 overall. The only thing I'd say that this team was missing to challenge for nationals was a V2 as their v2 went 6.6k at state, but that v2 would go up 1400 points at nationals! They would get run over by one of the great teams of history, the '06 Taft team, but they would be one of the best teams in Texas history and especially during the 2000s. They would go on to repeat in 2007 but with a significantly less powerful team and one of the worst championship teams in Texas history. They would then drop to a narrow third in large in 2008 in their home town (losing to a pretty good Pearland team) and continue to slowly decline out of the top 10 with a few close calls, their lowest point being 2016 with a 22nd place in large. The current outlook for Plano is strong, with a really solid group of honors and scholastics last year. As zzzptm pointed out, Ms. Kolb was as incredible coach for Plano and helped create a very successful program and culture. She helped make Plano one of the best historical programs in the United States.

J.J. Pearce is a victim of a lack of information from the beginning of Texas decathlon. The first 8 years of TX AD had 5 Pearce state titles, a run exceeded only by Katy Taylor. If we were to include those years in they would be much higher, possibly even first (although I don't think they would quite make it). Nevertheless, the list of top 10s speak for itself- despite not having that information together, Pearce is undoubtedly one of the best programs in decathlon history, not just Texas. Their best period of history is at the beginning, when they won the 1991 state title and took 3 2nd places and a 3rd place from '90 until '94. Pearce would continue to be in the top 10 all the way until 2007 (2002 has no info on medium school other than Friendswood, but I would assume they would again be top 10). They have not returned to the top 10 since, but reached their highest point since this past year with an 11th place performance in 2018. Despite the information on their dominant run in the late 80s, it should also be noted that that Pearce has won the most national championships in state history, with their five national titles exceeded only by Granada Hills and El Camino Real. This puts them in truly rarefied air, having three more titles than any other Texas team. Truly a dominant force of early decathlon, and likely one of the vehicles that made Texas decathlon become the massively successful program it is now.

Edit before I pick this back up- I had not put Lubbock's first state title into the system, which should put them up to 116 points before this year, which puts them 14th place over Keller. I will try to finish this list in the next few days and then update it for this year.

Dulles is doing well. On top of last year's 3 returners, we have 9 other juniors who are coming back plus another 2 or 3 who joined up that are very strong. We also have somewhere around 20-25 sophomores, sitting around 38 total. We actually have honors depth for once- 10 kids competing which should be exciting, and some of them I believe to be on Sophie's level. Our scholastics are deep but I'm still not sure who will step up out of the group; we have about 20 or so scholastics and nearly all of them will be competitive. Varsities are going to be very strong, and a lot of strong depth there. Of course by the end of the summer we could be down to 35 or so, but still not too bad.

Our summer schedule is now based around a project- they have to turn in a journal of basic notes for every resource except econ and math the day we get to school. We also are increasing our meeting frequency while reducing the amount of time spent in one day- so we're hoping that will keep the kids reading and encouraged. We're more concerned with reading on a surface-level than getting into the nitty gritty as of now.

We're really going to miss that senior group, but we've gotten better every year for the last four years, and I don't expect this year to be any different. The question is how much better does the rest of Texas get.

So with another crash, and a lack of discussion here, I have wondered if their is a better way for us to create an online community for decathlon than a message board. I do not know what it is, but i think there are several possibilities- a facebook group, subreddit, slack or irc chat, etc. I don't think a message board is mobile-friendly, which is what most people use for their info gathering. Just an idea, because this seems to not be able to keep a community together anymore.